New priest in Salt Lake diocese: Fr. Kelechi Alozie

Friday, Aug. 28, 2020

SAINT GEORGE — Father Kelechi Alozie, the new parochial vicar of Saint George Parish in Saint George, has come to Utah from Nigeria, by way of Colombia and Los Angeles.

His vocation to the priesthood was born before he was.

“It was very difficult for my mom to be able to get pregnant with a baby boy, so she told me she used to pray a lot in front of the Blessed Sacrament,” said Fr. Alozie, adding that his mother told God that if she had a baby boy, she wouldn’t mind consecrating him.

She finally had a boy.

“When the nurse told her it was a baby boy, she said ‘Kelechi,’ which in our dialect means ‘thank God,’” Fr. Alozie said.

As he grew up, his mother frequently would take him to their home parish.

“I loved and appreciated how [the priests] did the rites, so I asked to be an altar server. I was 7 years old,” he said.

He was told he could be an altar server, but he couldn’t receive the sacraments because he hadn’t yet received his First Communion, so he immediately took the classes for that. 

As he grew up, he would tell his mother that he wanted to have a career where he would be of service to the community, such as a doctor, a lawyer or a priest.

“But in my heart, I appreciated the love to be a priest more,” he said.

Fr. Alozie went to public schools until high school, when one day a friend told him that a nearby seminary was conducting interviews. He went there without any hesitation.

“I was the first person that was selected into the seminary,” he said. “I was very happy. Fortunately for me, along the line the Lord put me in a seminary.”

After a few years, he moved to Colombia to study theology at the Jesuit-run University Xavaeriana. 

On June 28, 2008, Fr. Alozie was ordained to the priesthood by the Most Rev. Daniel Caro Borda, Bishop of Soacha, in Bogota, Colombia. 

“That day was one of my happiest days in my life,” Fr. Alozie said.

Even though his parents couldn’t make the journey from Africa to be present, he felt a sense of joy and peace flood his veins at his ordination, he said.

“I was very happy for God giving me the opportunity to be one of his instruments,” he said.

In 2009, Fr. Alozie returned to Nigeria, where he held a series of assignments in different parishes. He also served as a principal at a high school, where he would tell the youth to rely on God’s strength.

‘God’s joy is the youth’s strength,” he said. “I always encouraged them to never give up. God never fails.”

Three years later, his bishop asked him to go to the United States.

“The journey of the priest is not a journey of staying in a particular place; their journey is of evangelization,” Fr. Alozie said. “Jesus says, ‘Go to the whole world and preach the Gospel,’ so that’s why my journey has been a journey of a missionary.”

That journey has taken him from his homeland to Colombia, then back to Nigeria, and from there to Los Angeles, where he got to know Bishop Oscar A. Solis, who was then an auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese.

The Most Rev. Oscar A. Solis was appointed as the 10th Bishop of Salt Lake City in  2017; he was installed on March 7 of that year.

“In my mind, I have always had the thought that I would go to his diocese, and now I did,” said Fr. Alozie, who is enjoying being in St. George as parochial vicar.

“This is a very lively community,” he said. “I am very happy. It’s like a big family. I love being with them. People are very nice and hospitable.”

Although both of his parents recently died, Fr. Alozie is grateful to be in Utah, he said. “These are the people that God has sent me to serve. Everything will flow according to the will of God.”

Fr. Alozie speaks English, Spanish and his native language of Igbo.